Spooky Tooth - 1973 - You Broke My Heart, So I Busted Your Jaw (full album)

  • 10 years ago
Part of the early-'70s British hard rock scene, Spooky Tooth grew out of the bluesy VIPs and prog rock group Art and consisted of vocalist Mike Harrison, keyboardist/vocalist Gary Wright, guitarist Luther Grosvenor, bassist Greg Ridley, and drummer Mike Kellie. The group built a following through countless gigs and recorded its debut album, It's All About, in 1968. Spooky Two became their most successful album in the U.S.; afterwards, Ridley left to join Humble Pie and was replaced by Andy Leigh. Following 1970's Ceremony, Wright left to form Wonderwheel, while Grosvenor took the name Ariel Bender and joined Stealers Wheel and later Mott the Hoople. The addition of three members of Joe Cocker's Grease Band -- Henry McCullough, Chris Stainton, and Alan Spenner -- was not enough to keep the band afloat, and Spooky Tooth broke up after The Last Puff in 1970. A reunion in 1973 with Wright, Harrison, and future Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones produced several LPs, including the moderately successful You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw, but personnel shifts and a lack of top-notch material ended the project in 1974. Wright went on to a successful solo career, scoring pop hits like "Dream Weaver," and Mike Kellie later joined the punk-pop Only Ones.

Sadly, the most distinctive thing about Spooky Tooth's sixth album is its title. While the band became a well-oiled ensemble of talented musicians (especially with the addition of future Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones), it wasn't especially groundbreaking or original, relying too much on generic early-'70s blues-rock, with pedestrian, humorless lyrics. The gospel choir in "Holy Water" and the funky guitars in "Wildfire" are ties to the older, less heavy Spooky Tooth, but the rest, even the ballad "Self Seeking Man," are standard-issue Led Zeppelin/Bad Company-style hard rock. The playing is impressive (especially Jones' guitar leads and Gary Wright's keyboards), but without much in the way of memorable songs, it's mostly wasted. The lyrics aren't any more notable, consisting of either simple love songs or odes to self-pity. The one exception, "Cotton Growing Man," is a bizarre diatribe against Southern slave owners that sounds about 100 years out of date. Fans of the genre should probably find You Broke My Heart enjoyable, but others need not bother.

Bass Guitar – Chris Stewart
Drums – Bryson Graham
Engineer [Recording] – Chris Kimsey
Lead Guitar, Vocals – Mick Jones (2)
Lead Vocals, Piano, Harmonica – Mike Harrison (2)
Organ, Piano, Vocals – Gary Wright

http://www.allmusic.com/album/you-broke-my-heart-so-i-busted-your-jaw-mw0000715109

Recommended